The Role of the Translator PDF

THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR Char lot t e Café  The cultural and political agenda of translation The position and positionality of the translator The sociology and historiography of translation COVERAGE The power network of the translation industry...

THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR Char lot t e Café  The cultural and political agenda of translation The position and positionality of the translator The sociology and historiography of translation COVERAGE The power network of the translation industry The reception and reviewing of translations 2  THE CULTURAL AND POLITICAL AGENDA OF TRANSLATION Venuti insists that the scope of translation studies needs to be broadened to take account of the value driven nature of the sociocultural framework. Venuti and the ‘invisibility’ of the translator Invisibility - is a term he uses ‘to describe the translator’s situation and activity in contemporary British and American cultures’ The way translators themselves tend to translate ‘fluently’ into English, to produce an idiomatic and ‘readable’ TT, thus creating an ‘illusion of transparency’;  Venuti discusses invisibility hand in hand with two main approaches in translation: 1. Domestication: This translation method involves adapting the text to fit the target culture, making it feel as though it originated there. It bringing the author closer to the reader by adapting the text to familiar cultural values. 2. Foreignization: ‘entails choosing a foreign text and developing a translation method along lines which are excluded by dominant cultural values in the target language’ Venuti links foreignization to "minoritizing" translation Minoritizing - where the translator intentionally makes cultural differences visible. Instead of making everything sound familiar, he keeps certain parts of the original culture that might seem strange or different to the reader. 4  BERMAN: THE ‘NEGATIVE ANALYTIC’ AND DEFORMATION OF TRANSLATION. Bermans Negative Analytic of translation ‘The properly ethical aim of the translating act’, says Berman , is ‘receiving the Foreign as Foreign’, which would seem to have influenced Venuti’s ‘foreignizing’ translation strategy at the time. However, Berman considers that there is generally a ‘system of textual deformation’ in TTs that prevents the foreign from coming through. He called that ‘negative analytic’: He identifies a 12 “deforming tendencies, as noted below: 1. Rationalization: Simplifying syntactic structures and removing repetition, which can lead to a loss of the original's complexity. 2. Clarification: Making unclear elements of the original text explicit, potentially altering its intent. 3. Expansion: Translations often end up longer than the source text due to added explanations, which can dilute the original voice. 4. Ennoblement: Translators may "improve" the style of the original, risking the loss of its unique oral qualities. 5. Qualitative impoverishment: Substituting rich, expressive words with less evocative equivalents. 6. Quantitative impoverishment: Losing lexical variety, such as using a single term for multiple synonyms in the original.bn 7. Destruction of rhythms: Altering word order and punctuation can disrupt the original's rhythm, especially in poetry. 6 8. Destruction of underlying networks of signification: Ignoring the interconnectedness of words can lead to a loss of meaning. 9. Destruction of linguistic patternings: Standardizing the translation may erase unique sentence constructions and styles. 10. Destruction of vernacular networks: Loss of local speech patterns and cultural references can detract from the setting and authenticity. 11. Destruction of expressions and idioms: Replacing idioms with culturally equivalent terms can misrepresent the original's context. 12. Effacement of language superimpositions: Translation often erases the coexistence of different language forms present in the original text. 7  Toury (2012) suggests that translators' personal reflections on their work may be biased, but more recent studies value these insights as they reveal translators' working practices. Venuti (2008) advocates for visible and foreignizing translation, in contrast to translators The position and who rely on subjective criteria like "accuracy" and "flow." positionality of the translator Positionallity: Is the positionality of the translator has also become more central in translation studies Tymoczko advocates for translators as cultural mediators, challenging the detached, objective ideal. This movement in translation studies represents "intervenience," where translators actively contribute to social change. 8  The sociology and historiography of translation In the early 2000s, the focus on translators' social roles and the historiography of translation has grown in translation studies. Influenced by Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theories, researchers examine translation as a; Field - which is the site of a power struggle between participants or agents (translators, authors, publishers, etc.) The translator might also be influenced by norms in the Filipino literary world, such as the preference for certain types of language (formal vs. colloquial). Habitus – Is a social and cognitive make-up or 'disposition' shaped by education and background and types of capital (social, cultural, economic, and symbolic). For example, a translator who is familiar with Western culture might understand the Thanksgiving reference and want to keep it in the translation. However, someone with a different cultural background might feel the need to adapt it for a Filipino audience, perhaps replacing it with a local tradition, like "Pasko" (Christmas). The translator’s experience in literature, their social status (e.g., whether they are seen as an "elite" translator), and their access to resources all play into this decision-making process. 9 Illusio – It highlights the cultural boundaries of translators’ awareness. They may choose to adapt these cultural references in a way that fits the cultural sensibilities of their audience while still staying true to the essence of the original text. Bourdieu's work emphasizes the active role of translators in decision-making processes, extending Daniel Simeoni's concept of the translator's habitus. Simeoni argues that translators shape norms through their practices, while Enghilleri and Gouanvic expand on Bourdieu's ideas, highlighting that stylistic choices reflect unique backgrounds and cultural conditioning. The sociology of translation examines translator agency through various theories. Andrew Chesterman and Buzelin apply Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory to highlight the relational dynamics between participants in the translation process, viewing it as a collaborative network. Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory adds to this by seeing society as a collection of self-contained systems, each affecting translation differently. Together, these perspectives underscore translators' active and complex role in shaping cross-cultural meaning, influenced by both individual and societal factors. The power network of the translation industry Literary Translations is an economic activity. Publishers seek to minimize the cost of translation. Editors are not fluent in the foreign language and the main concern for them is that the translation should read well, eg. Commmissioners, revisers, etc., make the role of translator seem to be weak in the complex network; this is called as Power Play. 10 The reception and reviewing of translations Reception theory, including examining the way a work conforms to, challenges or disappoints the readers’ aesthetic ‘horizon of expectation’. This is a term employed by; Jauss 1982, to refer to readers’ general expectations (of the style, form, content, etc.) of the genre or series to which the new work belongs. paratexts - devices appended to the text is the subject of the cultural theorist. According to Genette, two kinds of paratextual; 1. Peritext - appear in the same location as the text and are provided by the author or publisher 2. Epitext - ‘is any paratextual element not materially appended to the text within the same volume but circulating, as it were, freely, in a virtually limitless physical and social space 11 The reception and reviewing of translations Synchronic analysis - would be an examination of a range of reviews of a single work For instance, examining various reviews of a newly released book would be a synchronic analysis. Diachronic analysis - would be an examination of reviews of books of an author or newspaper over a longer time period. For example, studying reviews of an author’s books over several years or observing how a newspaper’s views on a genre change over time would be diachronic analysis. 12 THANK YOU Char lot t e Cafe